#4 - Decoding Unfamiliar Texts

This assignment was really interesting for me. I’ve been reading All The Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy before bed the last few weeks, and it is a book that is peppered with Spanish dialogue.  I can often figure out what is being said, but sometimes I find myself frustrated and having to get up to look up words in an online translator. 

I found a book at the local library entitled En El Tiempo De La Luz by Benjamin Saenz. I could translate the title with my minimal Spanish skills – “In the Time of the Light”. I could also glean from the back cover that the main character’s parents were killed in a car accident, leaving him in charge of his brothers and sisters.  I also learned there would be an important decision for him to make that would alter the course of his life.  Then I tried to read the first page.  I could get a few words here and there in some sentences or most words in other sentences, but I never had a sentence in which I could understand every word.  And I knew I was missing key words because I couldn’t piece things together very well at all.  It was very frustrating and took a lot of concentration to attempt each word, then try to piece to together a sentence, then try a sort of cloze reading around the word I didn’t know.  I didn't even make it through the first page.  I was very lost.

Then I decided to read the Spanish People magazine that my roommate orders for her sister-in-law who teachers Spanish.  All those glossy pictures at least let know who the article was about. And I also had the background knowledge of what People magazine in English is usually like –I’m familiar with the format, the kinds of stories, etc.  Even then, though, I felt my understanding was very piecemeal.  I got the big picture, but not the small details.  In my head, what I kept likening it to was, it would be enough to earn me a C or D on a comprehension test, but not an A, which is not exactly the way I like to read.

Reading a children’s book was much easier – there were pictures to help me along and the words were simple and in short sentences.

This really was a very helpful reminder of just how much an ELL student has to deal with in the classroom.  I was in a quiet library with no one bothering me – I can’t imagine trying to maintain the concentration level needed with the type of energy and interaction that usually is happening in a classroom.